The present invention relates to electronic registration systems for purchased products. More particularly, the invention relates an improved electronic product registration system that enables non-serialized products to be effectively and efficiently incorporated into electronic registration systems.
Electronic registration (ER) systems enable eligibility information regarding return, warranty, replacement and/or repair of previously purchased products to be collected, stored and accessed for the primary purpose of enforcing policies regarding same. Exemplary electronic product registration (ER) systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,978,774 and 6,018,719, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Electronic registration (ER) systems have, in the past, relied on the use of a unique identifier, such as a serial number, for each product that is purchased. The serial number is obtained at the point of sale for inclusion in a registration database, together with other information, such as a date of transaction. This database can then be accessed in connection with an attempted product return/warranty transaction for the purpose of determining if the product qualifies for return/warranty under applicable return/warranty criteria (which are also stored in or made available to the ER system). Such electronic registration systems may also be used in connection with repair and/or exchange transactions, in addition to returns, by enabling an accurate determination as to whether the product qualifies for any of these actions under the appropriate policies and criteria under which the product was originally sold.
The ER system uses pre-established return/repair policies and procedures that are programmed into the system so that the system can perform a check when a product is presented for return to determine if the product qualifies for return, replacement and/or warranty repair based on sales transaction information available in the ER system for the particular product at issue. Thus, known ER systems include a database of return qualification information (or warranty/replacement criteria) for various manufacturer's and/or retailers that enables the system to make an accurate determination with respect to whether or not a particular product or item (that is uniquely identified by the system using a serial number or other unique identifier) actually qualifies for return (or warranty/replacement) based on the appropriate qualification criteria. Such ER systems have greatly reduced improper and fraudulent returns and warranty claims.
ER systems have, in the past, used a unique identifier for each product that is registered, thereby enabling the system to provide return qualification information with respect to the particular product being returned. Voice recognition, dial-in or internet systems are used to access the ER database to obtain information on registered products. For example, the ER system may be accessed at the time a product is being presented for return in order to obtain return qualification information for that specific product. An example of a voice recognition (VRU) system that uses serial numbers to access an ER system is disclosed in PCT application No. PCT/US01/25296 filed Aug. 14, 2001 , and entitled “Voice Recognition Method and Apparatus Using Dynamic Link Library”, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. Due to the fact that the ER systems have been based on serialized products (i.e., products each having a unique serial number), the access systems used therewith have also been based on the use of serial numbers.
Due to the serialized nature of previous ER systems, products that do not include a unique identifier associated therewith have not been able to be incorporated into such ER systems. As a result, such non-serialized products have not been able to enjoy the many benefits provided by ER systems.
While ER systems have proven to be very useful in their current forms, additional improvements in such systems are still desired in order to provide additional functionality that will benefit customers, retailers and/or manufacturers. Thus, improvements in ER systems are needed in order to enable effective use thereof for non-serialized products, as well as serialized products. To this end, the instant invention provides an improved ER system that has increased functionality, by providing an enhancement to known ER systems that enables information on non-serialized products (i.e., products that do not have a unique identifier) to be incorporated into an ER system. The instant invention provides an improved ER system that enables non-serialized products to be easily and effectively incorporated into ER systems. The term “non-serialized” as used herein means items that are not uniquely identified relative (by some type of identifier, such as a serial number) to other similar products, thereby preventing the items from being distinguished from other items after manufacture, sale or the like.
In accordance with a main aspect of the instant invention, a method and system are provided for obtaining and using information on sales of non-serialized products for the primary purpose of reducing the number of unauthorized returns of purchased products. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, retailer specific information on sales of non-serialized products are collected by the ER system in an efficient manner and in a way that enables an educated decision to be made when a non-serialized product is presented for return as to whether it is possible for the product to qualify for return under applicable return policies or criteria. Thus, the improved ER system of the invention enables non-serialized data or identifiers to be used to access return/warranty qualification information that applies to a class or group of similar products. For example, in accordance with the invention, model numbers or other non-serialized data (such as UPC or SKU numbers) that do not uniquely identify a particular product can be entered into the ER system for the purpose of storing non-serialized product transaction information and later obtaining return and/or warranty qualification information for a product that is being presented for return. Thus, the invention enables electronic registration of non-serialized products, such as products that may not have been originally intended for electronic registration, due to, for example, their price, nature or other characteristics. The invention also enables products that have been sold without collecting serialized registration data to still be added to and benefit from ER systems.
In accordance with a main feature of the invention, retailers provide information on a periodic basis which identifies when and which non-serialized products have been sold by the retailer. The ER system stores this information together with information on applicable return policies relating to the sold non-serialized products. By knowing the last date on which a particular type of product (but not the exact product) was sold by a retailer, the ER system is able to determine whether it is possible, at the time a product of this type is presented for return, that the product could qualify for return. For example, by knowing that a specific retailer last sold a product having a certain UPC 100 days ago, the ER system is able to inform the retailer upon inquiry that it is impossible that the product qualifies for return under the retailers 90 day return policy. Thus, a key aspect of the invention involves obtaining from participating retailers (or other entity) information indicating when certain types of products (e.g., products having the same UPC or other non-unique identifier) were last sold by the retailers, respectively. In one embodiment, the retailer transmits to the ER system each day at least one UPC for each product that the retailer sells that day. In this way, the ER system knows the last date on which each type of product was sold by each participating retailer. The system also includes return policies for each retailer, such as “no returns allowed after 90 days from purchase.” Thus, when someone attempts to return a non-serialized product to a particular retailer, the ER system is able to assess transaction information for that retailer and for the specific type of product presented (e.g., UPC) and determine whether or not it is possible that the product qualifies for return under the retailer's specific return policy(ies). For instance, if the last date of sale for products having that UPC number, for example, was more than 90 days from the attempted return date, then it is impossible for that product to qualify for return under a 90 day return policy. Similarly, if the last date of sale for that UPC was within the 90 day period, it is possible that the product does qualify for return and the retailer can then make an educated and informed decision as to whether to accept the return. In this way, the invention is able to reduce the number of unauthorized returns by providing the retailer (or other party) with return qualification information, upon request, with respect to each type of product that it has sold, without requiring the use of a unique identifier.
The ER system of the invention provides and uses a database that is loaded with information on last sale date for products having certain model numbers, UPCs, SKUs or other non-unique identifiers, as well as applicable return and/or warranty criteria for products having these specific non-unique identifiers. The database may also contain serialized information so that the ER system can perform serial number (or other unique identifier) lookup operations as well as model number, UPC, SKU or other non-unique identifier lookup operations. Thus, the instant invention enables non-serialized products to benefit from electronic registration in substantially the same manner that serialized products have and are currently benefiting from electronic registration. Of course, the non-serialized ER system described herein does not provide the same level of accuracy as a serialized ER system, in that actual sales date or sales location information on a specific product is not available for the non-serialized products. However, the information provided by the non-serialized ER system is still very useful in making logical decisions about whether or not products qualify for return or warranty repair/replacement based on the last sale date information in the system for each class or group (e.g., UPCs) of products.